#2 avoid comparing yourself with other women

Sunday, 22 February 2015

We are all individuals - unique in ourselves and in our view of the world, but oh....how quickly I compare myself to other women around me. I look at my friends and compare my life to theirs, I compare how I'm aging, how my family and children are going compared to theirs, how my fashion sense looks, whether my values are the same as theirs etc etc.I won't even start thinking too hard about how I compare myself to women I don't even know and whose lives are a world away from my own. I need to appreciate the person I've become, I need to work at refining myself so that I can be the best possible "me", but at the same time I need to realize that the best possible "me" probably won't look anything like the world's version of a successful woman and it also won't look much like my friends' versions either.I don't want to be a photocopy of another person - regardless of how much I admire them. I don't want to be a cookie cutter version of mid-life womanhood. No, I want to be alive and vibrant and brimming with all the possibilities open to me and if I keep stopping to check whether this matches up with the lives of those around me, then I risk losing ground and stagnating. It's hard to find the right balance in aging gracefully and I'm not sure that I'll ever get it just right, but I need to do it in the confidence of my own qualities and attributes. It scares me that I might get it wrong, but that is part of the refining process too and it gives a depth to life if I try and fail and then try again.So, this year will be dedicated to being the individual I am and I will stop using others as my gauge of success. Instead, I will look to the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control - as my baseline and work from there. These make for more depth and character and worth than the superficial outward stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to say that I succeeded in becoming the woman I was created to be - although I will still be a work in progress until the day I die.

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Hi I'm Leanne, Welcome to my blog ~ Cresting the Hill ~ This is where I write about how much I’m enjoying Midlife and the empty nest. To quote Maya Angelou: “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style.” I’d love you to read and leave a comment – it’s a great way to connect and share the journey.

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